Fight

If you knew that you had to engage in a street fight with someone today, you’d prepare. Not wanting to fight wouldn’t help if the fight were inevitable. Ignoring the fight would only ensure your loss. The Bible says that you are in a daily battle for the control of your words. Scripture warns that your “tongue is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell” (Jms.3:6).

James then goes on to say that it needs to be tamed, arrested and controlled. Each of us will battle today with that unruly, disruptive and powerful force. We must win this battle. We must prepare every day. We must start each day with a call for God’s help. We must seek the power of God’s Spirit to endow us with self-control (Gal.5:22-23). We must be conscious of this daily battle before it begins.

May God give us the vigilance, the wisdom and the strength to mitigate the damage and marshal this powerful foe into submission. May we, with God’s help, successfully “offer the parts of our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness” (Ro.6:13) no matter how difficult the fight might be.